Real Costs of Dropping Out in Kentucky

Concern for the future of Kentucky's youth has always focused around education. It will come as a surprise to no one that dropping out of school is costly both personally to the dropout and to the state's economic growth. The Kentucky Center for School Safety has spent nearly a year quantifying just what that means from a variety of cost factors. Personal costs to the student, costs in lost revenue for local and state government, and collaborative costs due to higher prison and welfare costs as well.

For the first time, this research strives to demonstrate through very real and concrete means that not only students benefit when they graduate from high school, but state and local governments have a vested financial interest in reducing dropout rates substantially.